By Kevin Cunningham
Sports Correspondent
Three seasons ago, the UW-Whitewater women’s basketball team went 26-7 and lost in the national championship game to an undefeated Depauw team. Two seasons ago, the Warhawks went 27-5 and ended up winning the third-place game in the NCAA Tournament.
So last year, when the team went 13-13 and missed out on the NCAA Tournament, it would be easy for one on the outside to say, ‘what happened’? For head coach Keri Carollo, a young team and a solid end to the season is what the team is looking at.
“We won four of our last five games and we wanted to make sure that if we could, just build off of that for this year,” Carollo said. “We were pretty young last year and I think that getting game experience was important for a lot of our freshmen and also for a lot of our returners.”
Outside of the youth because of the number of talented seniors that have graduated over the last couple seasons, junior forward Lisa Palmer was an impactful freshman a couple seasons ago. Numerous injuries since then have taken a toll on not only the team, but Palmer as well.
Carollo said Palmer is an exceptional rebounder, and her tenacity on the glass is something fans will notice immediately when seeing her play, whether it’s for the first time or the 20th time. In a game last season before her injury, Palmer had an 18-rebound game.
One of Carollo’s calling cards over the years has been utilizing her team’s depth. Often times, at least 12 different Warhawk players will enter a game thanks to its up-tempo style both offensively and defensively.
“We’re pretty deep,” Carollo said. “We’ve got a solid team that we can do a lot of things with. We can go big and we can go small. Our guard play is pretty balanced, we’ve got speed and we’ve got size. It’s just about all of them figuring out how to play together. That’s the most important part.”
What made some of the previous few Warhawk teams so good; allowing them to go to back-to-back Final Fours was its continuity and veteran leadership. This year, 10 of the team’s 22 players on its roster are either juniors or seniors.
Some players who have recorded a lot of minutes in the past are guards Reilly Stewart, Abbie Reeves, Andrea Olsen. Inside, Palmer and 6-foot-1 center Emily Jensen will provide veteran presences as well.
Carollo had an easy message for what the team was going to do well early on this season.
“We’re going to play really hard,” she said quickly, then laughing about it. “And we’re going to work really hard at getting second and third opportunities offensively and getting after it defensively. That’s something we talk a lot about in practice, just staying consistent with our effort. And also our ability to communicate. If we can do those two things well, we can be a really good team.”
Outside of the players with valuable experience on the floor as a Warhawk, Jaya Perkins is a player Carollo said fans may not know a lot about, but over the off-season, has worked on her game a lot. Perkins is a transfer from a Division II school in Minnesota, and saw some time as a Warhawk last season.
Carollo said Perkins has gotten a lot stronger and has gained a lot of confidence over the summer.
“Defensively, she really long, so she gets her hands on a lot of balls in our press,” Carollo said. “She’s a great communicator and she works really hard on the defensive end. On the offensive end, she’s really worked hard on her mid-range game. In college you can’t just play the three-point line or attack the rim, you have to have that mid-range. We’re excited to see what she’s going to do this year.”
Carollo’s team has a blend of depth to go along with returning starters and talented players to try and get the team back to the NCAA Tournament. Its up-tempo, pressure style defensively is what Carollo wants and that is what fans should expect.
The Warhawks are picked to finish second in the WIAC but fell outside of the top-25 in the preseason poll. Carollo said the team was disappointed with the .500 season a year ago, but she was happy to find out that people on the outside respect the program enough for UW-Whitewater to get votes for the top-25.
The Warhawks kicked off its season in a game against Lakeland in Plymouth Wednesday. Following the Lakeland game, Carollo wanted the team to play some different teams within the region, so the ’Hawks traveled to Manchester, Ind. for games on Nov. 20 and 21.
